Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs. Unforgiven

aqualeo

on 10/20/2010

Robots still beat Eastwood

chadknopf

on 5/13/2012

This is an awfully tough one for me, and one I'll likely have to call by which way the wind is blowing on a particular day. I too feel that Unforgiven is Eastwood's finest hour; a statement in such a storied career. But here too, we have Arnold, and while his career is not so revered as the catalog of Eastwood, he too approached acting with an eager abandon. Eastwood tried his hand at comedy too, just as Arnold has, and while Arnold's action era occurred in a different period of Hollywood filmmaking, where character was sacrificed further for the sake of spectacle, it would be foolish to dismiss his finest hour based on the opinions of his oeuvre. Terminator 2 was built upon a better than average sci-fi action predecessor, but dared to surpass it in every respect so much so that it could not be ignored. Usually, an unplanned sequel coming over five years after the original is the hallmark of a financial ploy, but James Cameron treated it as a chance to not only wow the audience with visual effects that still hold up well today, but tell an engrossing story that allowed Arnold to be more than a shell of a character. It was laughably said after the original Terminator that Arnold had found his perfect role, a robot incapable of emoting. Watching Terminator 2 now it almost seems as if that jest played right into Cameron's hands, his second effort pushing that very idea to the forefront of the story, excising the ridicule in favor of giving the audience a reason to think about the things that make us human. It is because of this that I still see T2 as James Cameron's crowning achievement, just as much as I see Unforgiven as Eastwood's best directorial effort. As an actor, Eastwood is fantastic here, as he often is, but T2 was Arnold's one chance to stand even taller than he ever could on his own, ennobled with purpose thanks to a great script and vision, and be a part of a higher tier of respect, if briefly, and because of these factors, my final nod goes to T2.

cheesydog1

on 5/14/2014

No problem with this one T2